Category: Charcoal Drawings

I once again attended a life drawing session at Art on Target in Target Kloof. They generally hold them once a month and get a different model to pose each time. This time they got their gardern to do it – a wonderful gentleman in his 60’s with lovely features. It was apprently his first time posing and he did very well.

In one of the drawings I tried to focus mainly on his face, but he tended to look around the room a bit and although he probably thought he was only moving is eyes it did change the look – the next few drawigns I stuck mainly to his body.

We started with 3 minute poses, then a couple of 15 minutes, 30 minutes and ended off with 1 60 minutes session. I love doing this and will definitly try again. I probably would not have done these had it not been for the fact that I am unable to run (hopefully that changes this week)

For me it was on Saturday when I went to my first ever life drawing session. I was really nervous beforehand, I did not know what to expect, I was not sure if my drawing would be “good enough” and I did not know anybody else that was attending.

As with most things my worrying was unnecessary. I absolutely loved it. Although not a class or workshop they did give us a couple of pointers when requested. There were quite a few people there that were also doing it for the first time and it was fun to walk around and see what everybody else had done.

There were some people that had never drawn people before and there were some professional artists. Nobody was made to feel that their work was inferior or “not good enough”. And the lady hosting it did give some pointers for us “first timers”.

How it worked was they got the model to pose for short burst first, extending the time. It was first 60 seconds, then 5 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 1 pose of 1 hour. I was amazed at how quickly the time went.

Below are the two of my drawings that I am most happy with. The first one is a 30 minute pose and the second is the 1 hour pose. I took these photos with my phone, so they are not the greatest. I think I will need to try to scan the pictures.

Like this:

On all these reality TV shows, whether it is cooking, singing, dancing or home decorating, you always hear the judges saying the contestants need to “find their voice”. At first I did not really understand what they meant, but as I watch more (purely research purposes of course) I got what they meant. The contestant had to find the style that suited them.

I feel like I need to do that with art. I am not talking restrict myself to one thing like only paint, or only draw. I will always be trying new things and techniques but I need to discover my style. I will still bake, sew, make cards, do various crafts, spray paint chairs, renovate and upcycle etc. but I am talking specifically about my artwork. I see fantastic works of art that people are creating and think – wow, I’d love to paint like that or draw in that style or whatever. But I know, I would never or could never do that. It is not my style!

But what is my style? That is the problem. I feel that I need to define it, to “own” it. I don’t know if I am making any sense?? But I feel that I need to concentrate on what works for me and I know that this should be easy and perfectly clear but I am finding it hard.

There are a few things that I know for sure. I love drawing! But I need a reference. I can’t draw “out my head”. I love people and portraits. I like paining in oils, but also love pencil, ink and charcoal. I am better at realistic than fanciful. But that is probably just because I have no confidence in my creative abilities. So taking these as starting points I am going to try and work on defining my style. I know it will change over time and I will improve. For now I am going to draw more, as I mentioned in my post “Making a Plan” I want to try and draw something every day. Not a masterpiece or even a full sketch. I am happy if it is only a doodle, but I want to pick up a pencil or pen and draw.

Do you know your voice? Are you trying to find it?

If you look at the tabs at the top of my page there is one labled “Art Work”. I have some of my pictures and paintings there.

Share this:

Like this:

Yesterday I went and gave Joyce the picture I drew of her.I thought she would be quite happy, but never expected the reaction I got.She was ecstatic and I got the hugest hug.It was great and I am really glad I gave it too her.

She then told me that her husband had died of cancer on the 29 December so it was nice to have something nice happen to her.By that stage both of us were crying.

Like this:

Here is my latest creative effort. It is a charcoal drawing on paper and I copied a photograph that one of the children from the EP Child and Youth Care center took when I let them play around with my camera.

I battled a bit taking a photo of it as there was a glare from the glass. Here are two photo’s so hopefully you get the idea, the one looks a bit blurry and the other has reflections on it. I think I should stick to the drawing and leave the photography for the kids.